This invention relates to inclinometers for continuous casting machines and in particular to a mounting assembly for an inclinometer for continuous casting molding machines.
Continuous casting machines are well known in the prior art and include a mold made up of two essentially parallel wide walls (broad face plates) and two essentially parallel narrow walls (narrow face plates) to define a casting passage of rectangular cross section. One of the narrow face plates is adjustable whereby the cross section of the mold, which determines the size of the slab to be cast in the mold, may be varied. The size of the continuous slabs formed by the continuous casting method is substantial as the slabs may be up to 12 inches thick and 100 inches wide. The mold is surrounded by a water jacket which cools the mold.
For a further description of continuous casting molds, reference may be had to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 239,530 entitled, THERMOCOUPLE FOR A CONTINUOUS CASTING MACHINE which was filed on Sept. 1, 1988 and which is assigned to the assignee of record of the present application, which description is incorporated herein by reference.
One of the narrow face plates must be held at a predetermined taper, whereby the rectangular cross section of the bottom of the mold is smaller than the rectangular cross section of the top of the mold. The reason for tapering one of the narrow face plates is to adjust the mold for shrinkage of the metal. As the molten metal cools in the mold and forms a skin around the outside of the molten metal, the metal will shrink. Thus the bottom aperture of the mold from which the slab exits should have a smaller dimension than the upper aperture of the mold into which the molten metal is poured.
The taper of the narrow face plates is determined by the shrinkage of the steel. The taper of the wall is then adjusted by means of two screws, a first one of which is secured to the upper end of the narrow face plate and the second one of which is secured to the lower end of the narrow face plate. It is extremely important that the taper of the narrow face plates be rigidly maintained during a casting run of the mold which may be as long as a week or more. If the taper is not rigidly held but changes during the molding process, it is possible that a break-out would occur, namely that the skin around the molten slab would not form properly and that cracks would occur therein whereby molten metal would spill out of the mold so that the entire molding apparatus would have to be shut down and all of the solidified metal would have to be removed therefrom and from the surrounding equipment. Thus it is extremely important that the taper of the narrow face plate be monitored, so that, if any variation therein occurs, the mold may be shut down before a break-out occurs.
For this purpose, an inclinometer is used to monitor the taper of one of the narrow face plates. The inclinometer is a device which is normally adjusted to be in a level position and which is sensitive to very slight movements away from its level position and generates an electrical signal if that situation should occur. The electrical signal is routed to signal processing equipment and to an operator who can thereby monitor, from a remote location, that the narrow face plates taper has not varied from a pre-established limit.
The inclinometer is normally mounted on top of the water jacket of one of the narrow face plate whose taper is adjustable. Once the taper has been set, the conventional method of mounting the inclinometer was to shim the inclinometer until it read zero and then to tighten the inclinometer down in that position. The space constraints for mounting the inclinometer are such that it is conventionally mounted below the pipes which supply water to the narrow face plate water jacket. Thus, if a different taper were indicated the water supply pipes had to be disconnected, the inclinometer had to be loosened, a different shim had to be placed below the inclinometer after which, a taper gage was applied to the inclinometer to insure that it was level. The inclinometer was then tightened in position, the water pipes were reconnected and the reading of the inclinometer was checked to ensure that it was proper and that the inclinometer was in a perfectly level position. If the reading was incorrect, the entire process had to be repeated until the inclinometer was properly positioned. This entire process was very time consuming and therefore very expensive due to the inability to operate the continuous casting mold during adjustment of the inclinometer. If during the continuous molding operation, the taper was not properly held, then the mold had to be shut down and the entire adjustment process of adjusting both the narrow face plate taper and the inclinometer had to be repeated.
It is therefore desired to provide an inclinometer mounting assembly which makes adjustment of the inclinometer extremely simple so that very little time is necessary to adjust the inclinometer.